making black powder

[fireaway329]

has any one here made there own black powder?

also if anyone knows any good books on making your own powder please suggest.
any comments will be much appreciated thank you fireaway329.

[Gerry N.]

has any one here made there own black powder?

also if anyone knows any good books on making your own powder please suggest.
any comments will be much appreciated thank you fireaway329.

Making your own black powder is about the most non habit forming hobby there is.

That said, if you decide to do it, find someplace spark free, and far from other people. It is considered poor form to annihilate friends, neighbors, and innocent bystanders.

Blowing yourself all to bloody ragged bits, on the other hand, is simply Mom Nature's way of dipping the debris out of the shallow end of the gene pool.

One of the Foxfire series has a chapter on homemade Black Powder, as I'm sure does "The Anarchist's Cookbook."

That is only my opinion, of course.

Gerry N.

[shotman]

go to drug store and get a bottle of potasium nitrate[salt peter] bottle of powder charcoal and bottle of sulfur your set. I used to make it in school and smell the school up with smoke. Do you know what would happen today. I will have to look up the mix
Its 75 parts potasium. 15 parts charcoal and 10parts sulfur
look up Foxfire vol 5

[missionary5155]

Good morning
My first foray into the alchemist alignment of propellant matter was a real fizzle.
We were in that 11 year old area and had an interesting barreled object we loaded with peagravel and tried to down passing seagulls from a small backyard highspot along Lake Michigan.
Road flare, crushed charcoal and lots of old "Bluetips" made up the mixture we secured from "one of our bunch" dad´s red encyclopedia. Try as we did all day long all we could ever grt the mash to do was smoke, spark and fizzle.
SAFE FIRST !! People do remove appendages and terminate lives by being foolish. Saftey First !!! Making BP CAN kill you. Even Experts Goof up and the results are instantanious and PERMINENT !
When you buy your ingrediants consider where you live. You might not want to buy everything at the same store. Some people just do not understand the Pioneer Spirit that exists within the heart of some Americans.
But BE SAFE... yes you can.. but does that mean you should ?
Mike in Peru

[Baron von Trollwhack]

The FOXFIRE, V. 5 book has an extraordinary good discussion on making blackpowder with a safety emphasis. So good, I put it in my survivalist library, just in case. That being said , my much earlier P. B. Sharpe book notes that Sharpe's friend was blinded by an explosion as they were making black powder in an after hours school lab situation likely in the early years of the century, well before WW I. BvT

[Boz330]

Except in a survivalist situation, it is cheaper to buy than make. Saltpeter is available at the local butcher shop here for curing meat and it is almost as expensive as Swiss.
I made the stuff as a kid and got some pretty good stuff eventually. I think the ticket is to make small patches and do it remotely as much as possible. For personal use you don't need that big a batch anyway.

Bob

[big boar]

Can't remember where I saw a photo of the buildings where BP was being made but one thing was common to all the buildings, they had hinged roofs. The artilcle with the photos said, "the hinged roof design wasn't there in case of an explosion, it was there because of explosions". Seems the stuff liked to go off once in a while. I'd still like to know HOW to make it and would like to try making a small amount. Later in life though, like towards the end when it's time to meet my Maker.

[Hurricane]

Don't do it. Making black powder is very dangerous. The factories build the BP facilities away from the rest of the factory. The operation is run with machines instead of people. The facilities are built to have minimum damage when (not if) they have explosions. The factories have explosions in spite of all the safety measures they take. In addition, you would probably need a explosive manufacturing license to keep out of jail.

Have a good day,
Hurricane

[frontier gander]

http://thepowerbeltforum.powerguild.net/traditional-muzzleloading-rifles-and-pistols-f11/making-your-own-black-powder-t516.htm

[klcarroll]

I spent my early teen years as a "Basement Bomber": .......I was fascinated by pyrotechnics, …..and messed around incessantly with the commonly available formulas.

As time went on, I discovered two things:

1) A "serpentine" mix of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal (..a simple mix, without "corning") is horribly inefficient, and hopelessly dirty in its combustion characteristics: ....And "corned" powder is REALLY dangerous to make, because that is where you find yourself trying to grind a dampened serpentine powder into a uniformly grained product. (...And hoping that you have the moisture content high enough to prevent ignition!)

2) As the years went by, I had fewer and fewer "fellow hobbyists" that had all of their fingers and eyes.

If you are really concerned about being able to launch a lead projectile once all the powder and primers are gone, ........look into large caliber airguns!

Kent

[fireaway329]

well thank you all for the info,my nearest neighbor lives 11 miles away only want to try a small batch just to know how and i will be the only one around when i do it.

appreciate all the warning that's why i want as much info as possible before i try.

[Old Ironsights]

http://musketeer.ch/blackpowder/history.html

[JeffinNZ]

Please be careful if you are going to dabble in this area. BP is pretty unforgiving. Powder is still cheaper than life.

[trevj]

homegunsmith.com.

Register and log in. Scroll down to the Black Powder section. Set the options to "from the beginning" and read and learn.

Fellow there, moniker of Swede, documents a bunch of methods, and the results achieved therewith. Safety comes up a lot. Seems reasonable to me.

Don't do the dumb things!

Cheers
Trev

[robertbank]

Make sure your Health Care Insurance and Liability Insurance Policy covers you for this type of activity. I wish I could agree with anyone doing this but I can't. I know you have 9 digits and two thumbs and even a pair of eyes but the loss of any is a real bummer both to you and your family if you are the sole bread winner.

Take Care

Bob

[TCLouis]

I believe there are two things about those who start making BP in their spare time . . .

Their new nickname is "STUMPY"

Or

The never knew they could learn braille so quickly

[shotman]

making black powder is not near as bad as firecracker powder. napalm is fun to play with does a real good job of burning cars, Nitro is the best. That is the one you have to really watch. 5 degrees in temp will set it off. Its easy to make but very slow If you want to try it watch the temp very close has to stay at 74 to 78 when mixing.
one of the things about home made BP is it is a fine powder and it doesnt lend well for a gun. I didnt use it in a gun but I had a grinder shaft extender. that a 410 hull would fit in. It has a set screw hole . 1 teaspoon of home made BP in the hole would shoot a 410 hull about 100yds. We made "fire crackers" a 12ga hull and a 16ga and take primer out of one. They used to sell dynimite fuse that was orange. It was about 1/4 in and would fit in primer hole tight. Made a good fire cracker but you had to look out for brass heads. Then we started messing with fertalizer and fuel oil. It done a good job if it was contained. We had lots of fun but the neighbors didnt rick

[John Taylor]

Many years ago I made some. You want to mix all the parts wet, less chance of blowing yourself up. Store bought charcoal brickets are made from hard wood and will give a slow burn, make your own from soft wood. Dusting sulfur comes in 100 pound bags and will go a long way. Get your salt peter from the feed store, less than the drug store.
We tried some of the slow burning stuff in a canon and set the hills on fire.

[shotman]

there is no problem with it is as safe as the can stuff. you grind the parts first then mix . The problem is the salt peter will draw moisture very fast. so you have to get it ground fine and put it in a sealed glass jar quickly. The best charcoal is the activated stuff pet stores sell for fish tanks. any sulfur that is powder is ok.